Discussion

speaking of closings

Heavy Table says that the U of M Leaning Tower location is closed. I'm not at all sorry--I was to that location just once and hated it bad, despite being a Leaning Tower fan circa 1991 (The Potter--that whole shrimp and celery on pizza thing turns out to be addictive.) I am not as much of a regular as I was back then, but after the U location arrived it seemed like the pizza suffered at the 24th and Lyndale spot, too.

No opinion on the pizza place in question, but the light rail construction zone is going to be the death of a lot of businesses. It's the nature of this kind of long-term disruption. (Anyone remember Lyn-Lake?)

The newest casualty is Hot Diggity Dog, a small hot dog place on Washington Avenue in Minneapolis (a block east of the U). I think it was only about a year old. They ran a shoestring operation -- Vienna Beef hot dogs and Italian beef, offered Chicago-style or with other condiments, with bags of potato chips and bottles of pop. You could tell that they didn't have much capital to spend on kitchen equipment -- no oven or deep-fryer, for example, to expand their menu. They kept prices low to appeal to students. The place was run by a nice couple of kids -- I wish them well.